Rural Communities Opioid Response Program-Overdose Response - New Mexico's drug overdose death rate has been one of the highest in the nation for most of the last two decades. While the US rate of drug overdose deaths is 32.9 per 100,000 people , New Mexico’s overall death rate is 49 per 100,000 people, which is more than triple the rate of 1990. Substance use disorder (SUD) is therefore a critical health issue in New Mexico and especially in Rio Arriba County. According to the New Mexico Department of Health, RAC had the highest total drug overdose death rate (138.8 deaths per 100,000) among all New Mexico counties from 2020-2022 (see figure 1), a rate that is 60% more than New Mexico’s overall rate and 73% more than the national rate. The purpose of the proposed project is to collaborative with first responders to connect individuals experiencing overdose (post overdose) to needed resources, thus, to increase the number of RAC OD survivors in our treatment program and increase the capacity of SUD/OUD recovery housing for RAC.
